Nicolás Petro Burgos, first-born of the Colombian president, Gustavo Petro, It was declared, this Monday, January 13, innocent of the two charges of illicit enrichment and money laundering that the Prosecutor’s Office charges against him in the open case for allegedly having received money of dubious origin for his father’s electoral campaign.
“Mr. Judge, no; I am innocent“, responded Petro Burgos, who is in preventive house arrest, when asked by a judge in Barranquilla if he accepts the charges of illicit enrichment and money laundering that the Prosecutor’s Office accuses him of.
This Monday, the hearing against Petro’s son was resumed, in which The accused has called more than 30 witnesses, including his ex-partner Day Vásquez, and some of those accused of having illegally financed his campaign, such as the former drug trafficker Samuel Santander Lopesierra, as well as the one who was Petro’s campaign manager, Ricardo Roa.
The eldest son of the Colombian president is prosecuted for money laundering and illicit enrichment of a public servant, since When the investigations against him began, he was a deputy of the Assembly of the department of Atlántico.
After being arrested, in July 2023, President Petro’s son acknowledged, according to the Prosecutor’s Office, that received money for his father’s campaign from Samuel Santander Lopesierra – extradited and convicted in the United States for drug trafficking in 2007 – and Gabriel Hilsaca Acosta, son of the controversial businessman Alfonso ‘Turco’ Hilsaca.
The Prosecutor’s Office assures that Nicolás Petro “hid and concealed“sums of up to 500 million pesos (about 119,000 dollars today) delivered by politicians such as Máximo Noriega, accused of being the intermediary between possible drug traffickers and the president’s son.
Part of that money supposedly went into the Petro Presidente campaign in 2022, although Nicolás Petro assured in an interview with Semana magazine that the president did not know.
Colombian Money
Source: IStock
EFE
